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Help With Ideas To Celebrate Vaisakhi (April 2013) For Young People

yummy

SPNer
Oct 20, 2012
10
29
I wasn't sure where to put this so I do apologise in advance if it's in the wrong place and would be grateful if the mods could move it to the right place but I was wondering if I could get some help...

In a meeting I had recently at work, I proposed an idea of celebrating the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi.

We generally run events for young people that are very generic to celebrate different religious festivals. We don't promote the religion itself in anyway but just celebrate it with different events and activities. Like for Easter, we have Easter Egg hunts etc although nothing about the actual cause of Easter is celebrated.

Our user group is under the age of 16, and I am unsure of what sort of generic events/activities that we could hold with young people of this age to celebrate Vaisakhi. Most of the children who attend are actually under the age of 10. So really it needs to be suitable for them. Of course, there's the basic like creating a Vaisakhi card but I wanted something abit more lively and fun. We will also have refreshments and explain the concept of the Langar Hall but would need activities and events to go with this for the rest of the day.

Depending on the success of this event, we hope to run events for the other major Sikh festivals also so I really want to try get it right the first time.

We do have a very small Sikh community where we are, who I will get in touch with shortly to see what they could help with but in the mean time, I'd be super grateful if anyone could kindly contribute any ideas of things we could do. :)
 
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spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
19,219
yummy ji

My own experience is limited to what happens in my part of the world. Vaisakhi traditionally is celebrated with a Nagar Kirtan, accompanied by community participation by local politicians and community leaders. There is open-air kirtan. Various sevas are on-going for a period of time. Children taking music lessons in the gurmat school conduct their own children's kirtan during services. Other children recite poems. Everyone is crazy about that. There are also open-air food stalls. I don't know how young people specifically are organized, other than by their parents and by the gurdwara committee that sets this up. Children usually are doing some kind of seva in gurdwara all year long, so I think this is an extension of that. For example young boys giving out bottled water. Picking up trash. This is not probably what you are thinking of.

It sounds as if you are looking for something aimed more at an inter-faith group, with an educational purpose.

While waiting for other members to share their experiences, I suggest that you do a google search on Vaisakhi celebrations. Celebrations in big Sikh communities often post immense photo logs of their yearly events with examples of how children are involved too. There are also web sites for Sikh Kids. Google those. Some kind of activity that is not generally linked to Vaisakhi can be adapted so that it fits.

Once you are organized and the event takes place, please create your own photo gallery and post it on the net so that other sangats can learn from you
 

yummy

SPNer
Oct 20, 2012
10
29
Thank you very much for your help Spnadmin Ji. I am very grateful!

I will definitely look at the links and see what I can take from it. The American Turban one looks very resourceful - thank you!

You are quite spot on, it is definitely more for an inter-faith group hence why we have to be generic but most certainly education and being aware of others and celebrating diversity is what we are trying to implement.

Poetry is something that can be included and we can put in a poetry competition of some sort. Although that's not much different from our other activities and we really want to put in something that would make Vaisakhi stick out.

Is there anything with music that I could put in? I often listen to Gurbani (the ones I listen to have musical instruments) but not sure how I could incorporate that in at that level or make it specific to Vaisakhi. My colleague suggested using a dhol but I felt that was more Punjabi culture than to do with Sikhi - please correct me if I am wrong?

Many thanks again for your help!
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
19,219
Yes, dhol has more to do with Punjabi culture than Vaisakhi. I have to ponder the music question. I am not sure if you want someone to play an instrument live or a video would be OK as part of an educational experience. Also I am not sure that Vaisakhi has a musical focus that would be different from the rest of the year be it instruments or kirtan raag. After a video of children performing at a Vaisakhi service you could follow up with showing the instruments they are using, let everyone try them out, and have someone explain how they are used. Best I can think of right now. Surely someone on this site has experience with your question.
 

yummy

SPNer
Oct 20, 2012
10
29
Here is a site that might have ideas to adapt. Little Sikhs. There is a music mixer btw. I did not go through the entire site, but here are links from LIttle Sikhs to other sites. Don't know what is there either.

http://www.littlesikhs.com/useful_links.html


Thank you so very much for your help Spnadmin Ji, I am super super super grateful to you.

I do like the idea of teaching about the instruments although not sure where we would get hold of such things. I'll ask the local gurdwara if there is anything they could help with in that part. (Our events are free to the public and so we have to budget how much we can spend. :( ) We wouldn't get away with using a video though so live instrument would be preferential.

I will definitely go through all those links soon and see what I can put together, would appreciate your feedback once we do it.

Thank you very much for all your links and comments Spnadmin Ji. :D
 

yummy

SPNer
Oct 20, 2012
10
29
Following people & organisations could provide ideas & assistance...

Wow. Thanks for all these links Singhbj Ji. Looks great!!! I can't wait to go through all of these!!!

I found a few people on Twitter also that might be able to help but I am yet to contact them.

Really touched by all the help, thank you Singhbj Ji and Spnadmin Ji. Hoping this goes really well for me.
 
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